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On-Site SEO: How to Master Internal Linking and Why It Matters

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Everybody loves a good story. But what makes a story so good? It’s the details! When you tell someone about the time you had dinner with the Queen, you don’t just say, “One time I had dinner with the Queen.” Well, you could, but what kind of story is that?

A story’s context, the people involved, the locations, and all the other details are just like internal links. You pull from and reference tidbits here and there to paint a fuller and more interesting picture. To help get your story straight, SendPulse is showing us how to master internal linking and why it matters.

Why does it matter? Internal links help people find what they’re looking for on your site. Whether they are jumping to other relevant articles within your blog or just trying to navigate from your homepage to your “About Us” section, internal links will show them the way.

How to implement an effective internal linking strategy:

Review your menu and footer links. These make up the core of your site’s navigation. Links in your menu and footer are the “Beam me up, Scotty” of links. These will take people to your most relevant pages no matter how deep within your site they are.

Create a list of important pages and frequent search terms. Put all the URLs you used in your menu and footer links into a spreadsheet. Head into Google Search Console and select the “Performance” tab before clicking “Search Results.” Go into “Pages”, and you’ll see your 25 most popular pages. Clicking “Queries” will show you what people searched to find these pages. All this will help you understand where your content can be linked together if it isn’t already.
Review and update your content. Review each piece of content on your site and make a list of relevant content you have elsewhere on your site. Link this content in appropriate places with relevant anchor text.

Read on for more great tips.

How to Capitalize on 2020’s Unique Holiday Shopping Season

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

This year has presented unusual challenges for online brands and retailers to say the least. With the busiest shopping season of the year fast approaching, we can think of it as the big event we’ve spent the year training for. Here’s Visiture’s advice on how to capitalize on 2020’s unique holiday shopping season.

Enhance Inventory Management. Amid COVID-19, brick and mortar retailers, as well as eCommerce shops, have struggled with supply chain disruptions. Do the necessary market research to better forecast demand for your products. Planning ahead will help ease the headaches of any further disruptions during this shopping season.
Leverage PPC Advertising. Get your products in front of people on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other highly trafficked destinations. Utilize Google Shopping ads to visualize some of your offerings above organic search results.

Optimize the On-Site Experience. Don’t let your website be a bottleneck for your sales. Ensure your site is set up to facilitate smooth transactions. Optimize for both desktop and mobile so anyone who visits can purchase your products with zero hassle. A clunky site will steer people away toward other sellers.

Offer a Generous Return Policy. Many people will research items online but ultimately make purchases offline at brick and mortar stores. In a year where brick and mortar sales have declined, offering a great return policy will give buyers the peace of mind they need to make their purchase decisions. Remember, you may be competing with brick and mortar stores that already have well-known return policies.
Elevate Customer Service Expectations. Many older people who typically shop in stores will turn to online shopping this season. Anticipate questions regarding product availability, shipping times, and item tracking. People will have questions because of the general uncertainty surrounding supply chain issues experienced this year. Make sure your customer service channels are ready to answer these incoming questions and give people the assurances they need.

Keep reading for more preparation tips.

Data-Backed Ways to Optimize for Google Featured Snippets

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

Google has all the answers. Well, at least it knows where to find them. The actual answers come from all the content writers and various contributors to the World Wide Web. So when it comes to displaying the answers to questions, Google puts the experts at the top. And what better way to show off this expertise than with a featured snippet?

Today, Search Engine Journal is showing us some data-backed ways to optimize for Google featured snippets.

Answer Question-based Queries. Snippets are a common source of answers for questions people have. This is why 29% of question-based searches show snippets in the results. Queries beginning with “why” showed a 77.6% chance of returning a snippet, while queries beginning with “can” showed snippets 72.4% of the time.

Date Your Content. We don’t mean dinner and a movie. Google uses a lot of content with dates in its snippet results. It also helps indicate the relevance of your content. 70% of the articles used in snippets were no older than 3 years.

Use Subfolders Sparingly. Snippets don’t tend to favor long URLs. A URL with 1-3 subfolders is the right amount. 0 subfolders would mean a snippet drawing from your homepage, which is an unlikely place to source snippets. After the 3rd subfolder, your likelihood of scoring a snippet drops off.
Combine Multiple Questions in One Article. Snippets allow for great opportunities for concisely answering a question on a given topic. However, if you’re able to answer multiple questions on the same topic, then answer those questions in the same article.

Other key findings to keep in mind:

19% of SERPs have featured snippets.
50% of a mobile screen is covered with a featured snippet.
70% of snippets are paragraphs with an average of 42 words or 249 characters.

Keep reading for more data and insights around snippets.

How to Stop Your SMS Marketing From Being Left on Read

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

There’s a lot of traffic amongst the various available marketing channels. Email and social media easily gets saturated the same way the freeway does during rush hour. Sometimes taking the surface roads isn’t such a bad option. That’s where SMS marketing comes in.

SMS Marketing is super direct, and the competition isn’t nearly as great. Here are some tips from G2 on how to stop your SMS marketing from being left on read.

Focus on delivering the right message. Don’t limit your focus to firing off promos. There are plenty of other things recipients want to see. 67% of consumers want delivery updates, so include these in your SMS strategy. This will also demonstrate that you care about customer experience rather than just making sales. Consider sending order confirmations and appointment reminders when applicable.

Choose the right time to text. First determine the inopportune times to send texts. You don’t want to wake someone up with a message, and sending when someone is driving to work isn’t ideal either. Focus on times within the workday, but limit yourself to 1 or 2 texts per week.

Always allow the option to opt-out. If people are done receiving texts, give them an easy way out. 89% of customers switch over to competitors after a bad customer experience. Don’t drive people away by making opt-outs difficult.
Send discount codes, special offers, and coupons. While you don’t want to go overboard when it comes to sending promos, it’s still much of the reason people sign up for SMS. People tend to check texts right when they come in, so make offers time-sensitive in order to encourage action.

Keep reading for more ideas and the perks of SMS marketing.

12 SEO Techniques to Increase Organic Traffic in 2021

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

All the core components of good SEO will still apply next year. This is great for your tried and true methods, but it’s still as competitive as ever. Finding the more overlooked opportunities to drive more traffic will make for easier wins. Get started with these SEO techniques to increase organic traffic in 2021 from SEMrush.

Find Your Competitors’ Best Performing Pages. Finding some benchmarks will allow you to surpass existing high performing content out there. This also saves you time since it’s not simply back to square one with keyword research. Analyzing competitors’ pages will instantly show you what works and where there are gaps to fill.
Optimize For ‘People Also Ask’. According to SEMrush, ‘People Also Ask’ boxes are present in 49% of searches and this number is increasing. Most of the time, these boxes appear within the top 3 Google Results. These ‘People Always Ask’ questions shouldn’t be ignored. Answer these questions directly.
Use Supporting Content To Show Topical Expertise. Writing content around keywords is necessary, but creating content around topics will take you to the next level. Start with your core topic and create pieces of content to address the more granular specifics within that topic. This will allow you to address more long-tail keywords while tying back to your core content piece.
Make Your PR Team’s Efforts Work Harder For SEO and Turn Brand Mentions Into Links. It happens all the time – someone mentions you in a piece of content, but there’s no link included. Having those links makes a world of difference. Find out where these mentions live and reach out to politely ask if the publisher might update with a link. You don’t get what you don’t ask for!

Read on for 8 more SEO techniques.

6 Ways to Build Brand Authority With Content Marketing

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

The Oscars ceremony is more than a star-studded gala of today’s A-listers; it’s an occasion that signals the best-of-the-best among writers, actors, and directors, awarding those at the top with the highest honor of film prestige. An Oscar win — even a nomination — gets film aficionados and casual viewers alike interested in checking out what critics have deemed the very best work.

It’s all about authority. Just as people recommend movies to watch based on their merits, search engines recommend results based on the quality of content. Today, Moz is helping you clinch your own Oscar win with 6 ways to build brand authority with content marketing.

Answer your audience’s questions. Becoming an authority means being a go-to source for answers. If people see you as an authority, they will believe you know your stuff. The content you write should directly pertain to questions people have.
Create newsworthy reports and studies. Publishing original reports that break down new pieces of data is a great way to grab attention. Brand new studies can easily captivate the attention of media sources and others in your niche. Original studies are bound to build backlinks from people who recognize the importance of your research, and this further solidifies your authority in your field.
Utilize the authority of in-house experts. Your content probably carries a lot of expertise behind it. Who are the experts behind your content? Make sure the experts are visible to readers, so people can tie the subject matter to credible sources. Look for podcast opportunities, interviews, or just simple Q&As you can leverage to show off the authority of your in-house experts.
Highlight reviews, case studies, and other proof of expertise. If you can show how much some people trust you, gaining trust from others will be easier. Display testimonials to demonstrate mastery in your field. Even highlighting brand logos on your site will signal to others that you’re an expert since these brands are leveraging your skills, services, and knowledge.

That’s not a wrap yet! Check out the last two points from Moz.

How to Write The Perfect Instagram Bio For Your Business

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

When is the last time you saw a magician perform some magic tricks? Whether or not you were blown away, you likely knew there was some sleight of hand involved – something working in the background to bring the trick together.

While an Instagram feed is the grand spectacle of social media, the bio is the sleight of hand that makes a tremendous difference. AdEspresso is showing us how to write the perfect Instagram bio for your business so your profile will work like a charm for driving the results you want.

Think About Your Target Audience. Your Instagram account will convey your message to your entire audience – not just a hyper-targeted segment. If you have a varied audience, be sure not to lose anyone in your messaging. If your audience is more focused, then address their interests.

Define Your Value Proposition. What is your unique offering? Don’t focus on a product. Define why you’re the #1 choice for your target audience for what you do. If another business can accurately claim the same value proposition as yours, then you need to reassess what makes your offering unique.

Decide What Action You Want To Optimize For. Make clear what you want people to do. If you want them to purchase products, then tell them to browse your shop. If you’re after newsletter subscribers, then direct them to your newsletter landing page.

Include a Branded Hashtag and Sister Accounts. Show people how to tag you by including your branded hashtag in your bio. Also, include links to your sister accounts if applicable.
Make Use of Emojis. While your character count is limited to 150 in your bio, emojis are an effective workaround for remaining concise while getting your full message across. There are tons of emojis out there, so odds are one or two of them can save you some characters. Try using emojis to bring attention to your CTA.

Check out the rest of the tips and the examples alongside them.

14 Tips for Planning and Boosting Your PPC Campaign Performance

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

New York City to Los Angeles is about a 42-hour drive, but a flight will cover the same distance in just under 6 hours. Which one do you choose?

Road tripping is a lot like SEO whereas flying is like PPC. The destination (top of the SERPs) is the same, but the means and cost of getting there is the difference. For those who prefer flying, Databox has 14 tips for planning and boosting your PPC campaign performance.

Define your goals. Ask yourself why you’re launching a PPC campaign in the first place. Is it to drive subscriptions? Content downloads? Sell product? The entire effectiveness of your campaign will measure against your goal.

Keep experimenting with your variables. There are tons of PPC variables. Ad copy, extensions, keywords, and even more on your landing pages. For the best performance, keep testing and keep optimizing. Don’t neglect testing different ad copy.

Avoid generic funnel targeting. Go directly to your niche. Casting too wide a net won’t generate the same traffic quality as knowing and pursuing your real target. Your conversion rate and cost per conversion will thank you.

Track your conversion rate. Before you can accurately track your conversion rate, take the time to ensure your tracking is set up correctly. Your conversion rate will do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to deciding what works and what doesn’t.
Choose the right set of high-performance keywords. Sure, you’re paying for clicks, but the goal is revenue. Clicks won’t always equal revenue. This is why you must invest more in bottom of the funnel keywords. Determine which keywords people are searching when they’re looking to buy, and target those keywords.

There are still 9 more tips to go, so read them all and crush your PPC campaign goals.

6 reasons you’re not generating leads with your blog content

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Trial and error is a great teacher. We can learn from our mistakes and ultimately overcome our greatest challenges. Through trial and error, we can master our content. Maybe you’ve already been through the wringer a few times with your own content, and you’re still not getting the results you want. If so, here are Impact’s 6 reasons you’re not generating leads with your blog content

You’re writing about the wrong topics. The more content you publish, the more traffic you’re bound to get. Of course, while there are endless things to write about, the topics your audience cares about are more limited. To convert prospects you must demonstrate how you can solve their problems. Focus on their problems, pricing, and where you stack up against competitors rather than just what shows high search volume.

Your content has no personality. If people can’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. Let your personality shine through in your writing. If your blog sounds more human and more relatable, then they’ll trust you more easily. If your content is too dry and void of any character, then it won’t be interesting. Write the same way you talk and tie your topics to your own experiences.

You’re selling too hard. Once someone lands on your site, they may very well expect to see content aimed directly at selling them on your products. Make it your mission to share valuable content rather than self-promotional articles. This might look like an objective comparison of competitors’ products vs your own or even helping your reader determine if your products are a good fit for them at all.
You have no clear next steps. Excluding a CTA in your blog is like forgetting to provide an exit in a corn maze: there’s no clear path. Perhaps the next step is to purchase your product, read a related article, or download a white paper. Whatever it is, make it clear so the reader has no questions about what to do next. Guide them to your CTA.

4 down, 2 more to go. Don’t miss them!